#41 - "Call No Man Father": Socinus, Clerical Titles, and the Fight Over Religious Authority

A close reading of Matthew 23:9 that changed how one early modern movement thought about clergy, titles, and power. We trace the Jewish and patristic background of the phrase, the rise of clerical honorifics in medieval Europe, and the particular concerns of the Polish Brethren and Fausto Socinus. This episode sets the historical stage for Socinian exegesis of "Call no man father" and explains why a single line from Jesus came to threaten centuries of ecclesiastical practice.